The recently announced Budget 2014 has got many people excited and talking about the benefits for the different segments of Singapore society. Here’s Achieve CEO Joshua Yim’s take on the Pioneer Generation Package, as quoted in this article in The Business Times:

“We are certainly heading in the right direction with the initial measures announced in the Pioneer Generation Package. Besides the increased assistance for healthcare, there are three other areas that ought to be looked into. The first is housing – whether the low-income group among these pioneers have a decent place to stay, as there are some who may be facing a lot of financial difficulty and are unable to afford a proper home. The second area is social – there are many cases of older folk who are lonely as their children are not around or they may be staying alone. What kind of social support is given to this group? Perhaps there should be more budget allocated to non-governmental organisations to incentivise them to reach out to this group of people and help them have a wholesome retirement by keeping them active in their golden years.

Finally, more assistance could be given to help the silver generation be more employable and secure gainful employment to keep them engaged. Once a person crosses 65 years of age, there are very few employment opportunities out there, as many companies generally find that these older folks are not receptive to new ways of doing things including learning to use new technology, for instance. Yet, these older workers may still have the capacity to contribute. So I hope that certain policies can be tweaked and more schemes can be created to incentivise companies to hire these older workers. In doing so, it would also help ease the acute labour crunch that Singapore has been facing.”

Source : The Business Times, 24 February 2014